Early-onset neonatal sepsis and meningitis are associated with an increased risk for childhood epilepsy, according to a study published online July 7 in JAMA Network Open.

Mads Andersen, M.D., from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues examined the association between early-onset neonatal infection and childhood epilepsy in a nationwide, population-based, register-based cohort study of all Danish live-born singletons between 1997 and 2013 with at least 35 completed gestational weeks at birth without major congenital anomalies.

The median gestational age was 40 weeks among 981,869 children (51% male). Of these, 8,154 and 152 (0.8 and <0.1% respectively) were diagnosed with sepsis and meningitis. The researchers found that 257 and 32 children had culture-positive sepsis and culture-positive meningitis, respectively. The incidence rate of epilepsy was 1.6 and 0.9 per 1,000 person-years for children with diagnosed sepsis and those without an infection, respectively, resulting in an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.85. An increased risk for epilepsy was also seen in association with culture-positive sepsis (incidence rate ratio, 2.70), while the risks were highest in children with meningitis and with culture-positive meningitis (incidence rate ratios, 9.85 and 16.04, respectively).

“These findings suggest that improved prevention and treatment of early bacterial infections may help reduce the risk of childhood epilepsy,” the authors write.

One author disclosed receiving grants from MinervaX Aps.

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